Politics We're facing a shameful time in our history of building a new Rainbow Nation. Clearly the rainbow does not encompass all the colours - only those colours that are deemed from South Africa originally. But where does this all start....and more importantly how does it all end?
We have indeed become a mob.....
I stand back and look at the mob tactics used by the followers of one of our leaders at a rape trial in 2006. Little if nothing was done to stop or address that (amazingly it's really hard to find any 'official' press reports about the violence). The infighting prior to the Polokwane conference where a mob mentality prevailed. The ANC Youth League congress where violence erupted; the congress was eventually 'suspended' (at who's cost?) due to the violence that erupted. The continual infighting between Zuma and Mbeki factions. The mob that attacked and stripped naked a woman at a taxi rank for wearing a miniskirt....And now we have mob violence against foreigners. This is most shameful!
How did it all start?
Perhaps it was the fact that Mbeki in his lack of action on the crisis in Zimbabwe has left Zimbabwe to sort out it's own problems. Clearly this is impossible for the people - so they flee to....SA. The land of milk and honey.
Perhaps it's this constant Zuma vs Mbeki feud that seems not to be resolved (there's a lot written on this subject!). If our leaders can't shake their differences for the sake of betterment of the nation, how do we expect that people who have conflict in their townships (really close to home) will be able to handle this conflict. With rising food prices, cost of transport, and repo rate etc. people are feeling the pinch....Every cent they get needs to be counted and the disparity between the have's and the have-nots grows into anger and frustration. Tito - re-read the Harvard Group report and take note!
Perhaps it is the fact that the fat-cats in their bling lifestyle are not interested in the poor - as long as they continue to vote for them in 2009. So they'll kiss up (Zuma seems to be kissing up to everyone who has a brain small enough not to remember his prior kissing-up flow of drivel to a different audience) to them in the run-up - no doubt with a great deal of rhetoric about what they've done for them, or will do for them or how bad the opposition is, etc. etc. (if that fails, they'll resort to dredging up apartheid, race or colonialism). And once the voting is done, we'll have a new bunch of bling-less leaders who want to join their bling-filled compatriots. And will the problems be resolved or even addressed? No. Unlike Mandela who (though he no doubt has his faults) lead his people, our current leaders (and no doubt our incoming leaders) are simply governing the people. A high-and-mightly approach as evidenced by the Mbeki years.
Perhaps it's the fact that after 14 years of democracy, we still see (the majority of) people who are living below the minimum wage or no wage at all. These people probably have lost hope of bettering themselves, and see little or no hope of bettering the lives of their children. Would I not be bitter at the thought of that! Absolutely.
Finally perhaps it's the fact that immigrants who come to our country are ready to work; eager to put in long hours if need be to better themselves. Often they are better educated than local South Africans and thus able to fill positions to satify the employment equity quotas. Even those that don't hold white-collar positions are industrious; making things from wire to sell at the lights, opening shops, getting an education. Sure, there will be a criminal element too, but that goes for every country that has unemployment at the level we have.
Do I condone the mob tactics? Under no circumstances! However I do understand why people are frustrated and the foreigners are just the latest scapegoat.
But how to stop this?
Leaders need to take a stand on this. Groups and churches need to mobilise to protest that the leaders do something, even advertising campaigns by both government and the private sector. Our public leaders extending the hand of friendship publicly to those who are bearing the brunt of the violence. Stop the infighting between our leaders! Do something about the crisis in Zimbabwe, improve border controls to stop the influx of people into SA. Look at alternatives to simply raising the repo rate to curb inflation and the government actively looking at how to reduce unemployment.
And most of all...tackle the mob mentality of resorting to violence to bring about change or to oppose the other guy, or simply to make a point!
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